Governor defends executive order amid finger-pointing

May 16, 2007

Written by

Associated Press

Debate and finger-pointing continued Wednesday as Nevada lawmakers worked on a new "green" building tax break plan and traded arguments with Gov. Jim Gibbons over his order that suspended their 2005 tax abatement law.

The new plan, to replace one vetoed Monday by the governor, was expected to be introduced today and discussed Friday in a joint Senate-Assembly committee hearing.

As work on the new bill continued, the lawmakers' legal counsel issued an opinion that Gibbons' executive order temporarily suspending tax breaks for all but four energy-efficient building projects was "not valid and enforceable" because the governor went beyond his constitutional authority.

Gibbons said his order was "lawful, reasonable, appropriate and necessary," and didn't amount to an executive-branch end run around the 2005 law.

With lawmakers rapidly moving on the replacement measure, the opinion challenging his executive order "should have no effect" because the new proposal will fix the "unintended consequences" caused by the 2005 law, Gibbons said.

If the 2005 law remains in place, the tax breaks will amount to hundreds of millions of dollars.

The revenue loss has a direct impact on local governments and schools, and if Nevada schools fall short of a certain amount of taxes, the state must make up the difference.